Friday, October 31, 2014

In the last few days I have been busy with revising
an old manuscript, completing another draft of my current one, reading lots of
books, as well as finding my way around Twitter. Amidst all these hectic
activities I was unable to plot and outline my new story with which I wanted to join NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

I had a feeling that if I had a decent outline I may
have been able to complete the first draft (that is write 50,000 words) in the
30 days of November.

Unfortunately, my previous manuscript, research for the
current one, Diwali celebrations and my joining Twitter waylaid my best laid
plans. I consoled myself that I would take the NaNo plunge next year. That for
the last two months of the year I would work on Scavage (remember my book on
street dogs) and get it ready, complete with a query letter and a synopsis and
start querying for it after a couple of months.

On my regular morning walks I suddenly remembered that
I had another manuscript in my laptop. Hope you all remember the trilogy that I
had mentioned. I have written quite a few scenes, even the ending, before I
abandoned it last year.

Well, throughout November I will be working on
Scavage, getting it into a kickass shape (hopefully, my fear of dogs has not
affected my writing) and seeing where the first book of the Sorequil Trilogy is
heading. I hope to get a lot of writing done in November.

As for Twitter, I am quite enjoying it. I completed
one and a half months of Tweeting.

What about you all? What are your November plans? Anything
special you are working on next month?

Friday, October 17, 2014

It’s normal to make mistakes in everything we do.
Life is all about learning from one’s mistakes. My writing career is littered
with the many mistakes I have made, especially when it comes to my books.

For a long time I submitted the first book I had
written, to many Indian publishers. That was more than 10 years back. It was much
later I realized that I was flogging a dead horse. Once I pushed that
manuscript in my drawer as a hopelessly lost cause, I was at peace. All the
anxiety faded away.

Another mistake I made was by querying agents just
because they repped MG books. I had no inkling about an agent’s personal
reading taste or choice. As the rejections piled up, so did my disappointment.
It was only later when one of my blog buddies pointed out that I should query
an agent only if they represented my kind of a book. Else, all I would see were
rejections.

Another mistake I made when I submitted to Indian
publishers was not submitting simultaneously. Simultaneous submissions cut the
waiting time for us writers and also make us widen our search.

Depending on one book for too long is a mistake I
hope to never repeat. Nowadays, once I am done with one book, I move on to the
next one immediately as one never knows which book will capture an agent or editor’s
attention.

Follow up is not my strong point as I don’t want to
come across as pushy. But it’s a must when it comes to Indian Publishers.
Unless and until we follow up we never get replies.

Personalizing the query to a specific agent. Though
I never sent bulk queries starting with Dear Agent, I didn’t personalize it
either. Nowadays I research an agent, read all their interviews, try to see
what books they have repped, check them on Twitter and then mould my query so
that it doesn’t look as though I am sending queries at random.

Whew! That’s a whole lot of mistakes, right? I hope
never to repeat these mistakes again.

What about you all? Care to share your writing
related mistakes so we can all learn from it?

Friday, October 10, 2014

Every WIP (Work in Progress) teaches a writer lots
of things. Things that the writer would not have learnt if they hadn’t worked
on this particular story. My current WIP- Scavage, about street dogs was a
troublesome kid. All through the first draft I had just one thought running
through my mind: that I can’t write this story. I am so scared of dogs that
when I see dog I run faster than an Olympic medallist. It was natural that I
would take my own sweet time to finish the first draft.

Several times during the writing of this book my
muse deserted me. During those days I caught up with my other writing and kept
postponing the deadline for this story. And I deviated wildly from my original
outline with the introduction of a few new characters who snatched the story
from my hands and took it in a different direction.

One fine day I said enough is enough. I am the
writer. I need to get the story written. And written fast. I sat down and
rewrote the outline adding the new characters, warned my muse not to irritate
me and wrote the remaining scenes. For reference there was always YouTube.

After the first draft, I moved on to the second
draft. Finishing the second draft of this book has made me super happy. Now, I
have distanced myself from the story for a few days, to let it stew in its own
creative juices. I am working on my first YA book.

This book taught me several lessons. A writer has to
be flexible as characters become headstrong halfway through the story and want
the story to go in a different direction from the originally outlined one.
Another lesson was that the muse is never obedient and that a writer should
never depend on the muse and write inspite of an absentee muse. Last but not
the least, only if the writer has written the first draft can he start playing
magician with the story; adding plot twists, descriptions, character traits,
suspense and humor.

What has your current WIP taught you? Did your
characters develop a mind of their own halfway through the story?

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Its time for another IWSG (Insecure Writers Support
Group) post. IWSG founder Ninja Captain: Alex Cavanaugh started IWSG with the
aim of creating a support group for writers at different stages of their
publishing journeys. IWSG members post on the first Wednesday of every month. We
share our anxieties, doubts, fears and worries, and help, encourage and support other writers. IWSG has a website which is full of helpful information for
writers. And now IWSG will be bringing out a book ‘The Insecure Writer’s
Support Group to Publishing and Beyond.’

My Insecurity for this month is Deviating from the original Outline.
Though I always have a rough outline on paper, but, when I start writing, I tend
to deviate from that outline. Then I keep tweaking the outline to incorporate the
new scenes. Sometimes, the outline has changed quite a bit when I add a new character,
scenes or take unexpected twists and turns in the story which were not in the
original outline.

That makes me half-plotter, half-panster. I am seldom able to stick to my initial outline. Because the moment I start writing, fresh ideas,
characters, scenes and twists and turns start dancing in my mind. These were
not a part of the original outline.

Now that is making me a bit anxious. Because my final outline is quite different from the initial outline. Even when I plot in detail, while
writing my characters start whispering in my ears quite a bit. And I do tend to
listen to them.

Do you all have this problem of deviating from your
original outlines? How do you tackle that?

About Me

Welcome to my Scriptorium, my online Writing Room. I love to connect with other writers, so grab a chair, a cup of coffee, a bar of chocolate and we will discuss stories, books, writing, works in progress, characters, plots, marketing, titles and many other things related to writing and publishing.